The Ten Hottest Television and Movie Cars

We live in a car culture. We want the cars that will make all the girls turn their heads. Cars full of muscle and power and energy, cars that are indeed an extension of ourselves – or, at least, our sense of ourselves.

And when we watch our favorite television shows and movies, there are cars in those films that make you say, “Damn I want that car. I don’t care how much it costs. If I had that car, I would be the stud of the Capital District, I tell you.”

Okay, maybe not the stud of the Capital District… but…

May I present to you ten of the coolest, most fantastic cars ever to appear in motion pictures and television shows. Some of them are concept cars, while others possess special paint jobs and after-market accessories. No beaters, no clunkers, no granny wagons and no soccer mom vans.

Let’s start with…

1977 PONTIAC TRANS AM (Smokey and the Bandit)

I don’t care, this car had General Motors power and it could outrun any Smokey Bear or county Mountie in the South.

1974 FORD GRAN TORINO (Starsky and Hutch)

Now this is the classic undercover car. Nobody’s going to pick out a red Ford Gran Torino with a big fat white checkstripe on its paint job as being more than just another run-of-the-mill car. True fact: in 1976, Ford actually offered a special “S&H” paint job on several Gran Torinos, it was the last year of manufacture for the car.

1960’s era MACH V (Speed Racer)

That’s right, baby. Saw blades out the front. Powerful grip tires. An engine that would make Tony Stewart green with envy. What kid wouldn’t have wanted a Mach V?

1956 LINCOLN FUTURA (Batman 1967 TV series)

Okay, yes, it’s the Batmobile, but the Batmobile was custom-built from the chassis of a 1956 Lincoln Futura concept car. How do I know this? You can actually buy a model kit of the Futura – and, from another company, purchase the various component parts to make a model kit Batmobile.

1966 CHRYSLER IMPERIAL CROWN (The Green Hornet 1968 TV series)

Ah, the Black Beauty. If you couldn’t get your mitts on the Batmobile, how about this car with special green headlights and super powers of its own?

1970 DODGE CHALLENGER (Vanishing Point)

Do not argue with me. This is one of the greatest car movies ever made. Scuse me. I gotta get to Frisco by 3.

1974 FORD FALCON XB (Mad Max / The Road Warrior)

Do not argue with me. This is ANOTHER of the greatest car movies ever made. The last of the V8 Interceptors. Awesome car. I want one of these when I’m driving down the Northway.

1982 PONTIAC TRANS-AM (Knight Rider)

Yes, it’s another Pontiac Trans Am – but this one has a talking on-board computer and a vintage Cylon headlight system. And the voice of Dr. Mark Craig from St. Elsewhere giving the commands!

1968 FORD MUSTANG GT (Bullitt)

Watch this car chase scene and you tell me that there’s anything in those Fast and Furious movies that’s better than this. Where else can you find a car that can lose six hubcaps and still keep going?

1969 DODGE CHARGER (Dukes of Hazzard)

I wonder how many Dodge Chargers this TV show went through every time they made the “General Lee” jump over creeks, rivers and chasms. Every one of those cars had to have their doors welded shut, their suspensions super-reinforced…

I’m sure there’s some cars that I haven’t listed here. Feel free to add to the list.

Gotta defend my main man Bond. I’m also wild about the Lotus Esprit that converts into a submersible — hugely convenient for driving off docks! — in “The Spy Who Loved Me,” and the car that the jewel-encrusted-faced villain drives across ice in “Die Another Day.” Its roof flips off to reveal a cannon almost as big as the car itself. Cool!!

Jay – as much as I would have loved to add on the Aston Martin DB5, there are as many different Bond cars as there are Bond movies. Besides, if it was a battle between the Aston Martin and the Mach V… the Aston Martin would be left in a pile of scrap. :)

Pretty good list Chuck. I’m glad ds mentioned the 1985 Delorean in Back to the Future and Jim Rockford’s 1974 gold Pontiac Firebird Esprit that Bob cited.
A handful of other great TV/movie autos immediately come to mind:

1. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Dick Van Dyke’s (Caractacus Potts) fictional flying motorcar” from the 1968 movie of the same name.
(When I was a wee lad, I loved that movie and used to daydream of owning my own flying car so I didn’t have to share the back seat of our parents’ red Rambler with my three siblings. I even ate countless boxes of Honeycomb cereal to score a tiny plastic replica of this most awesome flying “motorcar.”

I may have incorrectly said that Mike Myers’ character Wayne Campbell owned the 1976 Pacer (aka “the Mirth Mobile”) when it may have actually belonged to Dana Carvey’s Garth Algar. Now I can’t remember who owned it. I’m not worthy!!!

– For sheer style over substance, Commander Straker’s gull winged Euro-styled sportster in Gerry Anderson’s “UFO,” (will anyone but me remember this series?) Like the Batmobile, it had no juice under the hood: from my digging around on Google it seems the car was really a heavily modified Ford Zephyr Mk IV with the engine and gearbox from a Ford Escort.

For style with a little more oomph, the twin black and white Jaguars from “Danger: Diabolik.” The stereos only play Ennio Morricone.

The updated Batmobile from “The Dark Knight” might qualify for the list on firepower alone, but since it morphs into a OCC-worthy chopper, perhaps it’s disqualified as a hybrid vehicle. Christian Bale is way too serious for the role, anyway.

I never knew the base vehicle for the older Batmobile was a Lincoln chassis – – I learn something new every day from your blog.

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Chuck Miller: Writer, Photographer, and the life lessons I learned from Street Academy